vecta 3d-MAX plugin problem

[fLaSh PuNk]

Hey, can someone help me?!?! I got vecta3d-MAX, and when I render I 3d Studio Max closes. It renders about 20-35 frames then just closes. I think it has something to do with memory. Could this be the problem? Or is it something I'm doing wrong?

[theMatrix]

I've found this plug-in to be rather buggy. In numerous cases, I have been forced to render one frame at a time, then modify the scene (i.e. remove objects) on frames where Vecta crashes. Then, I have to render the deleted objects seperately and re-insert by hand in flash. Ugh.

Your problem is probably with Vecta.

[gooch]

make sure you have room on your C drive. Even if you are rendering somewhere else Max uses it for cache. Rendering takes alot of processing so for 20 frames you pobably need 300 megs of free space.

[theMatrix]

A good observation, but my problems with Vecta occur on an NT system with over 1GB of swap space across two Ultra II/Wide SCSI drives and 512MB of physical memory. Looking at the task manager in NT, MAX/Vecta are not even close to exhausing physical memory, much less virtual.

If this were a problem, at least on NT, you usually get a warning from the OS before reaching a limit where any program would crash.

Don't know if fLaShPuNk is using MAX on Win '98, where it is much less stable (better under 3.1).

hth

[fLaSh PuNk]

Yeah, I'm using Win 98.
64mb SDRAM
776 megs left on C:

[theMatrix]

Zip your MAX scene and either e-mail it to me or provide a URL where I can download it. I will run it on my system and we can compare results.

thanks!

[Muti]

Matrix


Yes Matrix you are very right this is not a problem caused by the swap file. I faced this problem too. I am working on Pentium 550 Dual Processor with 256 MB Ram Ultra Wide SCSI Drive on NT platform. Vecta 3D has some bug which sometimes cause the crash. So I am working with Max and adobe illustrator combination + adobe dimensions. Do tell me what to do with this bug.

Waiting

Muti

[Edited by Muti on 08-02-2000 at 04:38 PM]

[theMatrix]

Hi Muti.

Well, as much as possible, I use Swift3D. To work around the Vecta problem when I have to use the MAX plug-in, I get in the habit of rendering each frame separately.

If a particular frame crashes, I start deleting scene elements until I find the one that is causing the crash. Like occasional problems with Swift, it seems to be one object in one specific orientation.

I render the offending frame without the object causing the problem. If possible, I try to create a symbol from a previous frame and then re-insert the object in Flash. If there is a lot of intersection between objects, this becomes difficult.

I had to do this twice in a creature animation,

http://www.2112fx.com/creature1.html

but ultimately got the entire animation to work.

hth

[fLaSh PuNk]

Is there an upgrade coming soon? For Vecta3d-MAX that is.
Oh, and to theMatrix. I just rendered it (the file i was having trouble rendering) and I rendered 10-15 frames each time then just put them together in flash. It seemed to work out fine after that. Now sometimes when I am rendering I just pause the process and then use, RamBooster to clear up some space, and it turns out fine.
[Edited by fLaSh PuNk on 08-02-2000 at 06:20 PM]

[theMatrix]

There is a MAX upgrade (3.1) that specifically targets problems experienced by Win '98 users. This may or may not help your specific problem.

I have heard something about a relationship between IdeaWorks3D and Discreet. Haven't seen an announcement, so treat it as yet another rumor.

I have not recieved any response to questions about a Vecta3D-MAX upgrade - you might try asking yourself.

Good luck!

[Steve Zytariuk]

64Meg of ram just don't cut it when your dealing with 3D modeling programs. I got 192Meg of ram and in 3 weeks i will be upgrading to 512Megs because 192 is just not cutting it for me anymore.

Note: I have a 350MHz PII Overclocked to 563MHz with 7 Case fans cooling it.

[fLaSh PuNk]

Steve, 512 megs thats crazy. I don't do that much 3d rendering I just do some and export it to .swf I'm looking to add another 64 soon. Maybe 128 more.

Hey email me about that overclocking. I have a pII 350 on a ASUS P3BF (I think I cant remember :P ) But send me an email about how you did it. (I want speed!) Email me here. LFwheels@hotmail.com

[Steve Zytariuk]

Ram is everything, in my opinion. I think that if you ram max's out a lot then you should keep doubleing the amout that you have.